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Press release, Hanover, 17 March 2004 Improved income position and increased dividend at Deutsche Hypo The Supervisory Board of Deutsche Hypothekenbank (Actien-Gesellschaft), Hanover/Berlin, has approved the Bank's 2003 Annual Accounts at today's balance sheet meeting. As already announced in the press release of 24 February 2004, the Supervisory Board has decided to propose to the Annual General Meeting on 12 May 2004 that a dividend of 11 euros per unit share be distributed, representing an increase of 1 euro per share, and that a further € 8 million be allocated to the reserves. Deutsche Hypo, which belongs to the ING BHF-BANK Group, can look back on a successful 2003. In what was its 132nd financial year, the Bank was able to improve on its previous year's result despite the unfavourable state of the economy as a whole. Overall increase in new business New business was up by a total of 92.1%, a development to which our two core areas of business contributed to varying degrees. New mortgage business, the volume of which fell by approximately 36%, amounted to € 1.26 billion in 2003. This was in line with our expectations and reflects our cautious assessment of the European property markets. Of this new business, € 791 million related to foreign transactions, which, although down 27%, continued to play as important a role as ever in our business strategy, accounting for 63% of total commitments. Additionally, with regard to commercial financings, the Bank succeeded in raising its market share from 5.6% to 6.2%. Developments in capital market business were gratifying with an increase in new business of just under 200%. Irrespective of interest rate movements in 2003, with new historical lows being recorded, the Bank consistently succeeded in matching new commitments with concordant refinancing with a sufficiently high margin. High standing as an issuer The Bank's successful positioning is also reflected in the strong level of demand on the international bond market for Deutsche Hypo Pfandbriefe and bearer bonds. Total issues amounted to € 10.4 billion, of which only € 1.5 billion related to the issue of jumbo Pfandbriefe. Our portfolio of bonded liabilities totalled € 21.7 billion. The annual reviews conducted by the rating agencies Standard & Poor's and Moody's once again confirmed the high quality of our Pfandbriefe and of our public sector loan pool (both S&P and Moody's awarded our public Pfandbriefe an AAA rating, whilst Moody's rated our mortgage Pfandbriefe as Aaa). Total assets rose by 19.9% to € 31.2 billion (previous year: € 26.0 billion). Satisfactory income position Both capital market business and mortgage business contributed to a clear improvement in net interest and commission income, up € 6.5 million to € 99.2 million (+7.0%). Although administrative expenses rose by 5.5% compared with the previous year, amounting to € 32.5 million as a result of specific projects, Deutsche Hypo was nevertheless able to improve its cost/income ratio to 32.8% (previous year: 33.2%). Despite the increase in risk provisioning, up € 5 million to € 26.4 million, to cover all currently discernible risks, the operating result before tax rose by 9.2% to € 47.3 million. Net income for the year, at € 33.1 million, was also up on the previous year (€ 28.4 million), with an increase of 16.7%. Outlook Although we are seeing initial indications that the economy as a whole is entering a recovery phase, we expect the economic environment to remain difficult with repercussions for the real estate markets in particular. Despite the first signs of an easing in the situation, these will not experience any real tangible improvement in 2004. Based on the continued development of our core areas of business, we can already see that capital market business will perform well, as it did in 2003. In view of the Bank's successful positioning, we are confident that we can achieve another satisfactory result in 2004. For further information please contact: Markus Nitsche Head of Marketing and Sales Georgsplatz 8 30159 Hannover Telefon: +49 511 3045-580 Telefax: +49 511 3045-589 E-Mail: Markus.Nitsche@Deutsche-Hypo.de |
